Just a small addition to the Schnozz's comments on autofocus and events.
I recently assisted shooting at a bat mitzvah dinner party along with
two other photographers. One was shooting with a Canon 10D and the
other with a Canon D60. I was shooting with my Minolta A1.
My photo mentor shooting the D60 commented early on that we were in for
trouble. The DJ's running the show for the kids are known to keep the
light level very low. He was familiar with these guys and knew that all
of the cameras would have some difficulty focusing.
The first hour or so went OK and even my A1 was able to focus. Slowly,
to be sure, but it would eventually lock in if the subject wasn't moving
too much. Finally I noticed that the camera couldn't focus at all
unless I found a nearby bright spot at the same distance as the subject.
The DJ's had cut the lights again.
It soon became apparent that the camera just couldn't cut it. Nor could
I see well enough to manually focus with that silly EVF. Finally, I
decided to do the only thing I could which was to manually focus at
about 6 feet and hope the depth of field would carry me through.
Much to my surprise, after all the photos were in from all three
cameras, it was obvious that I and the Minolta A1 had won the focus
contest. The A1 delivered the greatest percentage of in-focus images by
a substantial margin.
I was puzzled at first but then dragged out the DOF calculator and
finally realized that the DOF for the small, 1/3" sensor on the A1 is a
lot more than I thought; especially since 50 percent of the shots were
taken at equivalent focal lengths of 28-55mm.
The E-1, of course, has a larger sensor than the A1 and will have
shallower depth of field. But it is still a formidable range. With the
14-54 at 14mm and f/8 the hyperfocal distance is 4.87 feet which gives
DOF from 2.47 feet to infinity. At 27.5mm (the 55mm equivalent I
mentioned above) and f/8 focused at 12 feet the DOF extends from 7.3 to
33.3 feet. Even with no flash and having to shoot at f/4 will still
give DOF from 9.1 to 17.7 feet when focused at 12 feet. I should also
point out that these figures assume a resolution of 60 lines/mm which
should be sharp enough to make a good 8x10. If you want to assume that
the party picures won't be larger than 4x6 or 5x7 then you can relax
that assumption for even greater DOF.
I talk about DOF a lot but it took this event to bring it home.
Shooting digital brings a lot more changes than simply no film.
Chuck Norcutt
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